The Brain Injury Research Institute (BIRI) is a center for the study of traumatic brain injuries and their prevention that was founded in 2002.^[1][2]

Its founding members include: Julian E. Bailes, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at West Virginia University School of Medicine and former NFL and current NCAA team physician; Bennet Omalu, M.D., forensic neuropathologist, who is the Chief Medical Examiner for San Joaquin County, California, and Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Davis; and Robert P. Fitzsimmons, Senior Partner at Fitzsimmons Law Offices, in Wheeling, West Virginia.^[1]

The Institute has established a brain and tissue bank. It now houses 20 brains for future research.^[1]

Bennet Omalu was the first to identify chronic brain damage as a factor in the deaths of some National Football League players.^[2] He discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of Pro Football Hall of Fame player Mike Webster in 2002.^[3][1] Webster's son, Garrett Webster, is BIRI's administrator & player liaison.^[1] Omalu participated in former NFL player Junior Seau's autopsy after the latter's 2012 suicide.^[2]